I love cryptocoryne's of any kind they usually do great with minimal care but my absolute favorite happens to be lilies. I got one from a friend once who gave up on it and I threw it into one of my old tanks and with adequate light and just Flourish Excel the thing took over the whole tank. My favorite lily is Nymphaea daubenyana cause it doesn't need bright light to stay a lovley shade of red.

I like natural colored gravel. But its up to you. Those are Julie cories :P I actually got my hygrophelia at petco. It came in one of those tubes labeled as "compacta" it was $3.99 for 4-5 stems. It is one of the few true aquatics sold in the tubes. I never used root tabs for them, just a liquid fert.